La Faoniade. Inni ed odi di Saffo tradotti dal testo Greco in metro Italiano da S.I.P.A.

16mo. pp. XV, [1] (blank), 100. Contemporary gold-tooled red morocco, gilt edges. With bookplates of Syston Park, Eugénie & Jean Furstenberg and Hans Furstenberg.

Second edition, the first printed in 1780 by Bodoni, of an Italian translation of a supposedly previously unknown work by the Greek poet Sappho (ca. 630-ca. 570 BC), discovered on papyri found by a Russian scholar while visiting the Cape of Leucadia. It consists of a poem about Sappho's love for Phaon. The supposed translation was made by "S.I.P.A." (Sosare Itomejo pastor arcade), while actually being early work of the Italian author Vincenzo Maria Imperiale (1683-1749). The present edition adds to the fiction by presenting the work as being published in Chrysopolis.

See H.C. Brooks, Compendiosa bibliografia di edizioni Bodoniane. Florence, 1927, p. 459; Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico 113920 & 007773; G. de Lama, Vita del cavaliere Giambattista Bodoni. Parma, 1816, pp. 74-85. See also A. Palaia & L. Moscatelli, La collezione Bodoniana. Rome, 1987, p. 156; M. Reynolds, The Sappho companion. New York, 2000. Numerous reprints often pair ‘La Faoniade’ Alessandro Verri’s ‘Le Avventure di Saffo’ (first edition also of 1780, see Bib# 9736960 in this collection).

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